WEEK 12: Week of Miracles and "We're here to help YOU!"

(From November 3^rd)

Danish word of the week: Mirakler (meer-AK-ler) Miracles.  Danish is crazy. Sometimes words are completely different than English, and then other times it's basically the English word with a little bit of an accent. 

This week we really have had a lot of miracles with contacting! As missionaries we're supposed to talk with everyone. We talk to people on trains, on the street, obviously in appointments-basically everywhere we go we try to have a conversation and at least give people a pass-along card. We talk to a ton of different people every day, and we get a ton of different reactions. Some people ignore us and pretend we didn't say anything, some people look suspiciously at our nametags and move seats on the train (my personal favorite), some people are totally willing to chat but aren't interested in talking about religion, and then there are the people who I swear are miracles-who are genuinely interested in why we're here in Denmark and in what we have to say.  Secret-we're here to help YOU! These people can be few and far between, but you never know who they are until you open your mouth! It can be really scary-especially for two relatively new missionaries-we're not even 100% sure that we'll understand what they say back to us! And it can also be hard not to jump to the conclusion that people will say no. That's where faith comes in! We have been focusing really hard on having faith that Heavenly Father will put people in our path who are prepared to talk to us. As we've been exercising our faith, we have met some of the most interesting people, had some really great conversations, and found a new potential investigator every day! It's really humbling to see that Heavenly Father can work through us if we just trust Him over our own abilities. 

One boy that we talked to on the train is a Dane, but his mom lives in Utah right behind the Draper Temple!  WHAT? He's been to the Conference center before, and he's going back for Christmas! We told him to go see the Lights on Temple Square and to find a Danish missionary to give him a Temple Tour in Danish. He was really excited about that. Sitting right next to him was a very drunk man with a spiffy bow-tie and fancy umbrella who kept saying 'why are you talking about church? Don't you know you're in Denmark?' and then laughing really hard. He was sweet.

We talked to another man yesterday named Dave. We were getting on the train on our way to visit a less-active member, and we walked past a man who made eye contact and smiled as we went past. Not a Danish thing to do! We were going to sit in the seat behind him, but the Spirit told me to go sit across from him. So we did, and as we sat down he took out his earphones and said 'Mormons!' REALLY not a Danish thing to do. Turns out he's American, he grew up in Utah and lived in Boulder Colorado for 12 years! He just moved here with his wife. He invited us over to drink decaf coffee ;) and share a message sometime! 

We had another miracle Sunday. Sundays are seriously becoming my favorite missionary days. It's the day of the week where everything comes together in one place and it's just fun! A less-active woman we've been meeting with came to church with us for the first time in a long time and had a great experience! Her visiting teachers and home teachers have faithfully visited her every month so she had some familiar faces in the ward which we were SO grateful for! EVERYONE DO YOUR HOME AND VISITING TEACHING! IT'S IMPORTANT! She has a great story. She got baptized back in the 80's and went less-active when she married a Muslim man. She says that she has never doubted that the church is true. She has had some spiritual experiences she can't deny. Now she's just working on finding the faith to make the changes in her life she needs to make in order to enjoy all of the blessings of her covenants again! She is so sweet and it was so fun to have her in church!

We also had an investigator come to church. Her name is Mia. She's been investigating the church for a long time-like since 2006! She comes from a Catholic background and she has felt split between these two churches for years. Missionaries haven't met with her in about a year and a half, but the Elders got back in touch with her and then referred her to us. She wants to meet with missionaries again and make a decision! President has a fireside every fast Sunday at his house and we invited her to that as well. It was all about Christ. We watched the Because of Him Easter video and talked about how Christ makes it possible for us to achieve our full potential. 

We helped with a Halloween party on Friday :) That was my first experience of really realizing what an awkward missionary I am! We helped a woman in our ward set up a Haunted House in her basement and we hid and scared everyone as they came through-it was really fun. There were a lot of people there! But then after the haunted house was over, all 6 of us missionaries went upstairs and we had to walk through the party to get out the door, and I have never felt so out of place in my life! It looked like a really fun party-but seriously all 6 of us just stood there not knowing what to do for like 3 minutes-sticking out like sore thumbs. Painful. That's what it was. haha :) so, great. I'm weird! It happened.

Our zone is playing flag football against the North Sjælland Zone tomorrow, so I'm going to be calling on my intermural flag football skills to win this one. This is what we do for zone training, in case you ever wondered what the heck zone training is. :) It's football. 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Oh! Also, scripture that has been stuck in my head all week Alma 26:36-37

Edith-the woman we invited to baptism last Sunday has a baptismal date now!! She's getting baptized on November 22nd :) She's really excited! Her ward meets right after our ward so we got to see her again yesterday. What a gem!